Meat Cookery: PORK

PORK

PORK is the flesh of slaughtered swine used as food. It is believed to be more indigestible than other meats, but if it is obtained from a young and properly fed animal, it is not only digestible, but highly appetizing, and, when eaten occasionally, it is very wholesome.

The age of the animal from which pork is cut can be determined by the thickness of the skin; the older the animal, the thicker the skin. To be of the best kind, pork should have pink, not red, flesh composed of fine-grained tissues, and its fat, which, in a well-fattened animal, equals about one-eighth of the entire weight, should be white and firm. Although all cuts of pork contain some fat, the proportion should not be too great, or the pieces will not contain as much lean as they should. However, the large amount of fat contained in pork makes its food value higher than that of other meats, unless they are excessively fat, and consequently difficult of digestion.

One of the chief advantages of pork is that about nine-tenths of the entire dressed animal may be preserved by curing and smoking. Originally, these processes required a period of 2 to 3 months for their completion, but they have gradually been shortened until now only a few days are required for the work. Pork cured and smoked by the new methods, however, does not possess such excellent flavor and such good keeping qualities as that so treated by the longer process. Anyone who has the right storage facilities to care for the meat properly will find it much more economical to purchase a whole carcass or a part of one and then salt, smoke, or pickle the various pieces that can be treated in this way than to purchase this meat cut by cut as it is needed or desired.

NAMES OF CUTS	USES OF CUTS
Head	Headcheese, boiling, baking
Shoulder	Steaks, roasting, curing, smoking
Spareribs	Roasting, boiling
Belly	Salt pork, curing
Middle cut	Bacon, curing, smoking
Ribs	Chops, roasting
Loin	Chops, roasting
Ham	Roasting, curing, smoking
Back fat	Lard
Hock	Boiling, making jelly
Internal organs and trimmings	Sausage

USES OF CUTS

•        Hogs are usually fattened before they are slaughtered, and as a result there is a layer of fat under the skin which is trimmed off and used in the making of lard. The best quality of lard, however, is made from the fat that surrounds the kidneys. This is called leaf lard, because the pieces of fat are similar in shape to leaves. Such lard has a higher melting point and is flakier than that made from fat covering the muscles.

•        The head of pork does not contain a great deal of meat, but, as the quality of this meat is very good, it is valuable for a number of special dishes, such as headcheese and scrapple.

•        The hocks contain considerable gelatine, so they are used for dishes that solidify, or become firm, after they are made.

•        A shoulder of pork cut roughly from the carcass, this piece provides both roasts and steaks, or, when trimmed, it may be cured or smoked. The front leg, which is usually cut to include the lower part of the shoulder, the ribs inside this cut, when cut from underneath, are sold as spareribs. This piece is generally trimmed to make what is known as shoulder ham.

•        The ribs and the loin cut in one piece, from this piece are obtained the most desirable chops and roasts. When a roast is desired, the rib bones are removed from the rib cut, Directly under the backbone in these cuts is the tenderest piece of pork to be had. When this is removed in one piece, it is, as in beef, called the tenderloin. Very often, however, it is left in to be cut up with the rest of the loin.

•        The middle cut is commonly used for bacon, while the belly is most suitable for salt pork. These two cuts consist of large quantities of fat and only narrow layers of lean. They are especially valuable for enriching and flavoring foods, such as beans, that are neither rich in fat nor highly flavored.

•        The hind leg, or untrimmed ham, just as it is cut from the carcass, this piece is trimmed and ready for curing or for roasting, as will be noticed, the outside skin, or rind, is not removed from either the shoulder or the ham.